I’d like to welcome readers to the first of my new monthly columns in HRD Connect. I’m really looking forward to exploring a range of HR topics and sharing some insights from my experience as an HR Director in a variety of sectors including in my current role as Director of People and Planning at Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSH Charity).

My professional career has driven me to seek a deeper understanding of what makes humans tick, which I’ve had the opportunity to pursue through further education. Those educational qualifications have in turn inspired me further in my professional life too. I hope to share a little of what I’ve learnt along the way with you all.

What drives me in my current role is creating and supporting an engaged and enabled workforce, because we know that at GOSH Charity, this is key to delivering the very best results for the hospital and the children it cares for. With 618 children and young people from across the UK arriving at GOSH every day, all of whom need expert medical care for rare or complex conditions, we have a clear and strong motivation for achieving our charitable objectives for the benefit of these young patients and their families.

But as HR professionals, no matter which sector we work in, there will be opportunities and challenges that are familiar to us all. I certainly have experience of this from working as an HR Director across various sectors, as well as advising charities in my voluntary role as a trustee. Whether by attending conferences, speaking at events, or informally networking over a coffee, I’m always looking for helpful, practical takeaways I can apply to my own work or use to inspire my team.

So I hope I can share some interesting and thought-provoking examples of how we approach HR at GOSH Charity that will be useful for you too. I’m looking forward to writing about everything from workplace culture and flexible working, to how businesses can learn from the third sector and how you can leverage your brand to support recruitment of new employees – an area that we are excited to develop at GOSH Charity over the coming months too.

I’d also like this column to offer an opportunity to explore case studies of organisations or individuals who are approaching HR in a new and exciting way or overcoming organisational challenges and to highlight some ‘best practice’ examples we can all learn from. If you know of, or work for, a company or a charity you think is doing great things in this area, please do get in touch; I’d love to hear from you.

Heather Morgan is the Director of People and Planning at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) Children’s Charity. She has experience across a range of sectors and organisations including FMCG, telecoms, private equity, risk advisory and not-for-profit. Heather has a PhD in organisational psychology, is a Fellow of the CIPD and she is a trustee of two charities.